New York Police Department

Summary

A cold case from 1971 involving the homicide of Isadore “Izzy” Pacht was assigned to detectives of the 48th Precinct New York City Detective Squad by the Governor’s Office. After 34 years of periodic case reviews at the request of the Pacht family, it remained cold due to outdated, incomplete and inaccurate information included in the original case file. It wasn’t until a detective squad with access to a powerful public records database was assigned to this case in 2005 that it would be solved.

Challenge

• No forensic evidence pertaining to the case was available or useful.
• Witness information included in the case file was old, incomplete and, in two instances, wrong.
• Witness names included in the case file were all common names with no accompanying identifiers such as dates of birth or Social Security numbers.
• Witnesses moved away from New York, with minimal relocation updates included in the case file.
• Two suspects in the case needed to be located and safely apprehended.

Solution

• Conducted name searches using common sense parameters and phonetic differentiation within Accurint LE Plus.
• Used our advanced data linking technology, LexID®, included in Accurint LE Plus to make relevant new connections using old case file data.
• Investigated detailed address history of all witnesses and suspects using Accurint LE Plus

Results

• Tracked down and re-interviewed key witnesses from 1971.
• Discovered one suspect was deceased, based on data from Accurint LE Plus.
• Located final suspect at a homeless shelter in Stamford, Connecticut, using address information revealed by Accurint LE Plus.
• Obtained a confession from final suspect by using the "associates and relatives" linking feature in Accurint LE Plus to strategically inform police.